Tagged: art

Scholastic Unveils New Cover for Harry Potter’s 15th Anniversary

Harry Potter 15thHard to believe that it’s been 15 years since J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard first came to America. To celebrate, Scholastic announced this morning that a new covers will grace anniversary editions of the seven-book mega-best-selling series. In an interesting move, Kazu Kibuishi, the creator behind the over-hyped Amulet series, will be providing the new covers, replacing Mary GrandPré’s now classic images. Here’s the first cover for your viewing and personally, I think it’s an improvement. It’d be nice, as part of the celebration, they used the original title, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, but that’s not going to happen.

Here’s the formal release with all the anniversary details.

New York, NY (February 13, 2013) – Harry Potter fans and young readers just starting their journey through the world of Harry Potter will have something new and exciting to add to their bookshelves this September.  Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children’s publishing, education and media company, today unveiled an all new cover for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – the first of seven new covers to appear on U.S. trade paperback editions coming in September 2013 to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the U.S. publication of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the original book in J.K. Rowling’s best-selling Harry Potter series.

The stunning art for the new editions is by critically acclaimed artist Kazu Kibuishi, best known for his #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novel series, Amulet.  Kibuishi is a longtime Harry Potter fan who called this opportunity, “more than a little surreal.”  Each of the seven new covers will depict a distinctive and memorable moment from the respective book.  The collection, which will also be released in September as a boxed set, will offer new readers just reaching the age to begin the series a glimpse of J.K. Rowling’s magical world and the epic story they are about to enter.

“The Harry Potter covers by Mary GrandPré are so fantastic and iconic,” said Kibuishi.  “When I was asked to submit samples, I initially hesitated because I didn’t want to see them reinterpreted!  However, I felt that if I were to handle the project, I could bring something to it that many other designers and illustrators probably couldn’t, and that was that I was also a writer of my own series of middle grade fiction. As an author myself, I tried to answer the question, ‘If I were the author of the books – and they were like my own children – how would I want them to be seen years from now?’ When illustrating the covers, I tried to think of classic perennial paperback editions of famous novels and how those illustrations tend to feel.  In a way, the project became a tribute to both Harry Potter and the literary classics.”

The inspired original art for the series, created by the talented Mary GrandPré will continue to be featured on the U.S. hardcover and digest paperback editions.

According to Ellie Berger, President, Scholastic Trade Publishing, “The brilliant artist Kazu Kibuishi offers his unique vision of the world of Harry Potter, making each cover an incredible adventure that will transport new readers just discovering Harry Potter for the first time directly into the rich world of J.K. Rowling’s imagination.”

Scholastic also announced that in November 2013, the company will release the first boxed set of the complete Hogwarts Library in the U.S., including Quidditch Through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard.  Sales of the Hogwarts Library will support two charities selected by the author, J.K. Rowling:  Lumos, a charity founded by J.K. Rowling which works to end the institutionalization of children, and Comic Relief, a UK-based charity that strives to create a just world free from poverty.

Fifteen years after the first U.S. publication of J.K. Rowling’s first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in September 1998, there are more than 150 million Harry Potter books in print in the United States alone and the series still hits bestseller lists regularly. The seven Harry Potter books are published in over 200 territories in 73 languages and have sold more than 450 million copies worldwide.

Michael Davis: Dark Horse Wants Me Dead, Part 2

SONY DSCLast week I started telling the tale of Mike Richardson, CEO, publisher and owner of Dark Horse Entertainment and the hit he has put out on me. Please refer to part one before reading this.

After years of back and forth Mike Richardson finally gives me the OK to proceed with my graphic novel, The Underground – A Story of The Underground Railroad.

I’ve written hundreds of pages and produced dozens of preliminary drawings for the project but now it was time to produce the book.

Shit.

Shit.

Shit.

This was (is) a dream project and I wanted to do wonderful if not award winning work on it. I was so happy it was finally green lit I did the one thing I shouldn’t have: I became obsessed with the process.

SONY DSCI wrote the full script like a comic book script, breaking down each panel on the page complete with captions and word balloons. Didn’t like the first draft so I did another. Didn’t like that so I did another.

This went on for about a year. Then one day I realized my problem, the format the script was in was not working for me. I then wrote the story as a novel. After about three months I realized writing a novel was a stupid as shit way to do a graphic novel.

Duh.

SONY DSCThen I figured it out, write the script as a novella (short novel) then illustrate that.

Duh.

That process took another few years.

Before I go on it’s important for me to tell you that like Mike Richardson was busy with a multitude of projects during the years it took to green light my project, I had nowhere near the workload of Mike but while working on the Underground I also had numerous on my plate.

SONY DSCI don’t want to give you the impression that all I was working on was The Underground and was taking years to complete it. During the time I was working on the Underground I was also the head writer on a television show, creating content in a joint venture with a large entertainment company, not to mention writing two books and writing and illustrating another graphic novel and writing two weekly columns, one of which is for ComicMix.

However, Mike Richardson runs a massive entertainment company, yes he has a staff but Mike makes it a point to be involved and he takes the time to make sure the project is right before he green lights it. That’s why Mike’s involvement took the time it took.

After my project got the go ahead no matter what else I had to do it doesn’t matter I should be finished with the Underground by now.

And…I almost am.

Finally.

It will still be a few months but in an effort to show Mike some of what I’ve been doing I’m premiering some of the art here. Hopefully Mike will see this and call off the hit.

I hope so; the last two people who owed Mike a graphic novel were Tupac and Biggie.

WEDNESDAY: Mike Gold Goes Toonie

 

Dennis O’Neil: CBG and Romance

O'Neil Art 130124Great Caesar’s bust is on the shelf

And I don’t feel so well myself.

– Arthur Guiterman

I guess they’re not kidding about this “dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return” business. After 1,699 issues and 42 years of publication, what began as the brainchild of 17-year-old Alan Light and, after a few earlier names was finally and best known as The Comics Buyer’s Guide – CBG for short – has reached its end.

I don’t think I ever paid for an issue of the paper but, thanks to the generosity of its publishers, I read a lot of them. When I was sitting behind various editorial desks CBG would appear in the mail once a week and when I had some spare time I’d page through it, reading this and that. It wasn’t a big part of my professional life, but it was nice.

Eventually, I did a short article for it. My idea was to make CBG’s readership aware of Harvey Pekar and his self-published and strange and unique comic book, American Splendor. Since Harvey didn’t truck in the usual comic book stuff, I thought that maybe CBG’s readers might be missing something that was unlike anything else on the market, something they’d like. I now wish I had a do-over. Though my intentions were pure, the piece I produced, I think, was patronizing, maybe because I didn’t, and don’t, know how to describe Harvey’s episodic autobiographies. He was an American original and his work doesn’t classify easily.

That regrettable bit of quasi-journalism printed and, one hopes, quickly forgotten, I no doubt thought I was done with CBG except for my weekly reading of it. But the best was yet to come. CBG played a small, but crucial, part in events that shaped the rest of my life. Cue organ chord.

Getting married is generally considered to be a life-shaper, no? And getting married to a teenage sweetheart you haven’t seen in 30 years, well…

To be brief: Marifran Reuter, nee McFarland, was teaching a parish school of religion in a St. Louis suburb. Talking to a student’s mom, she mentioned that she once dated a guy whose brother had the same name as the student’s father. Mom and teacher compared facts and, yes, the student’s dad was, indeed,the brother of the guy teacher had dated, long since moved to New York and working as a writer. Teach wrote writer a letter and, on the writer’s next midwestern visit, they met and talked until three in the morning. A bit later, during a phone conversation, Marifran told the writer that she’d be selling text books in Omaha during summer vacation. Uh-huh! So the writer, me, looked into CBG and found the name of a comic shop in Omaha. I called the shop and persuaded the proprietor to invite me for an autographing session on the June day that Marifran was hawking textbooks in the area. Then I called her and said that she wouldn’t believe what just happened – I had a gig in Omaha on the same day and why don’t we meet in Missouri and go together…

Would it have happened without CBG? I don’t know. But happen it did, and on a warm Nebraska night, we sat on a hillside and spoke the truth as we knew it and created the rest of our lives.

THURSDAY: Martha Thomases’ Extra Heroes

 

DAUGHTER OF DRACULA RETURNS!

  • Uncategorized
  • January 22, 2013

Press Release:

AVAILABLE NOW!
DAUGHTER OF DRACULA
The Complete Script
By Ron Fortier
graphic novel cover

Writer Ron Fortier and Artist Rob Davis will be guests at this year’s Oklahoma Writer’s Federation Conference to be held in Norman, Oklahoma May 2-4.  Further details can be found at the organizations website.

Fortier and Davis will be presenting two 90 minute workshops on the creation of a graphic novel.  The primary example of their presentation will be their own 108 pg. erotic horror graphic novel, DAUGHTER OF DRACULA published in 2007 by Davis’ Redbud Studio.
The team will be using a visual power-point slide show to illustrate the various technical aspects writing comics and the artist interpreting a script and bringing it to graphic life.  Copies of the graphic novel will be on sale at the conference as well as this recently produced book version of the comic script. 
“It seemed like a natural thing to do,” Fortier explains.  “We thought writers having attended our workshops would benefit from not only having the graphic novel but the script from which it was derived as well.  This way they could compare pages from the scrip to the completed art in the comic thus underscoring the points we will be making in our presentations.”
This script book is available at Create Space – (https://www.createspace.com/4133786)
Redbud Studio Catalog website – (http://www.robmdavis.com/RedbudStudio/index.html)
Official OWFI page (http://www.owfi.org/)
THE 2013 OWFI Conference  
May 2 – 4, 2013
Embassy Suites Norman
2501 Conference Drive
Norman, Oklahoma 73069
Tel – (1-405-364-8040)

Marvel’s Original Sin

  • News
  • January 22, 2013

Sean Howe shows us proof that Marvel sold original artwork instead of returning it to the artists, or compensating them in any way.

Marvel began returning current pages to artists sometime in 1974, and eventually worked retroactively back a few months, to comics cover-dated from January 1974; among the earliest issues from which art was sent back were Avengers #119 and Amazing Spider-Man #128.

But a year earlier, Marvel sold the covers to these issues, cover-dated January 1973, to the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Seven covers, plus progressive proofs and color guides for each, for a total of $770.

Back in 1986, Irene Vartanoff (who began managing artwork return in 1975) told The Comics Journal that Marvel would occasionally send artwork to exhibits. But as far as I know, this is the only evidence that exists of Marvel actually accepting money for pages of original art.

It’s unclear if the gallery still possesses the pages; nothing comes up on their inventory database. But if Rich Buckler, Joe Sinnott, Barry Smith, John Romita, Sal Buscema, or Tom Palmer happens to read this, they may want to give them a call.

via MARVEL COMICS: THE UNTOLD STORY (Untold Stories: Marvel Sells Stash of Original Art…).

It has been long suspected that lots of comic art went out the door. But this is the first documented proof I’ve seen that Marvel did so and profited from it.

A quick guess puts the value of all that original art at $35,000 today. We wonder if the artists are ever going to see any of it.

MOONSTONE BOOKS FOR MAY

  • News
  • January 15, 2013

New Pulp Publisher Moonstone Books has released solicitation information for books arriving in stores May 2013.

DOMINO LADY/SHERLOCK HOLMES #2 
Written by Nancy Holder (with Bobby Nash), art by Nick Diaz, colors by James Brown, cover by Mark Sparacio.

A two-part murder mystery set against the backdrop of ancient Egypt! Domino Lady and Sherlock Holmes team up to solve the riddle of the Sphinx… ok, not really, but they do solve this riddle of passion, identity, and antiquity!

32 pages, $3.99.

You can see preview pages from Domino Lady/Sherlock Holmes here and here.

KOLCHAK: NECROMONICON SC 
Written by C.J. Henderson, art by Robert Hack, colors by Jason Jensen.

The Necromonicon trilogy is finished! Parts 2 and 3 are long since sold out, but Moonstone has included a brand-new prequel story! New softcover edition replaces the sold-out HC!

Carl Kolchak, whether he wants the mantle or not, is the world;s premier supernatural investigator. Vampires, werewolves, witches, demons, he has seen it all. Or … has he? Can even all the horrors he has stumbled across prepare him for the monstrous denizens of the Lovecraft Mythos, let alone its most damned volume, the Necronomicon? Told in widevision.

188 pages, $23.95.

THE SPIDER: EXTREME PREJUDICE 
Written by Will Murray, Ron Fortier, C.J. Henderson, and more, cover by Malcolm McClinton.

New short stories of prose starring pulpdom’s most violent and ruthless crime fighter ever: The Spider! More just than the law, more dangerous than the Underworld…hated, feared and wanted by both!

One cloaked, fanged, border-line crazy denizen of the dark force-feeding hard justice with a pair of 45’s! Guest starring: The Black Bat, The Green Ghost, and Operator 5!

Featuring stories by Will Murray, Mel Odom, C.J. Henderson, James Chambers, Ron Fortier, Bobby Nash, Howard Hopkins, Eric Fein, Gary Phillips, Don Roff, Matthew Baugh, I.A. Wilson, and Rik Hoskin.

Softcover, 288 pages, $19.95; Hardcover, 288 pages, $29.99.

Learn more about Moonstone Books at www.moonstonebooks.com

PREVIEW: THE SHADOW YEAR ONE BY MATT WAGNER AND WILFREDO TORRES

  • Uncategorized
  • January 14, 2013

In stores this February from Dynamite Entertainment.

About The Shadow: Year One–
THE SHADOW is a character that has lasted through decades on the pages of pulp magazines, over the radio airwaves, through the silver screen, and in the panels of comic books. Shrouded in mystery, his origins have been explored and hinted at over the years…but never fully revealed. Much is known of Kent Allard/Lamont Cranston’s years spent in the Orient and Central America—wherein he gains his powers and purpose…but not how he first developed his persona as the Master of Darkness.

Eisner Award-winning author, Matt Wagner is joined by artist Wilfredo Torres in an exhilarating 8-issue limited series that will explore the dynamic events that first drew Cranston back to the States, how he first met his companion and lover, Margo Lane, how he began to assemble his vast network of agents, and how he first adopted the famous black hat and cloak as his alter-ego’s disguise- all secrets that, up until now… only The Shadow knew!

Official Press Release:

Legendary comic book creator Matt (Mage, Grendel) Wagner takes on The Shadow in 2013 with The Shadow: Year One. Much as he did with Dynamite’s Green Hornet: Year One, Matt plans to tell the definitive origin story of The Shadow, showing fans why the character has endured in popularity for so many years! Look for Matt Wagner’s The Shadow: Year One in 2013!

“THE SHADOW has long been one of my absolute favorite established characters and I’m thrilled to finally get the chance to contribute to his continuing adventures,” says Matt Wagner. “I’m getting to help define The Shadow’s mysterious origins in a Year One story arc! For all his published history in both the pulps and comics, as well as his radio adventures, there’s surprisingly no depiction of his very first adventures as the dark-clad Master of Men. This series will explore the events that first drew Kent Allard/Lamont Cranston back to the States, how he began to assemble his vast network of agents and how he first adopted the famous black hat and cloak as his alter-ego’s disguise-secrets that, up until now…only The Shadow knew!”

“Matt’s a legend and it’s always great to work with him,” stated Dynamite Editor Joe Rybandt. “Everything about his work is infused with realism and authenticity, and his Shadow: Year One will raise the bar for pulps and their heroes.”

“I’ve known Matt for 30 years now, since he lived in Philadelphia and was working on Mage for Comico Comics. I’ve mentioned this for years, that I repeatedly asked him if he would work on a comic with me as even at a young age, his scripts, art and ability to tell stories was some of the best I had seen. I never would have thought that 25 years later we would start a relationship with Matt working together. This is the third project with Matt, and it keeps getting better each time. I’m proud to be working with Matt, and can’t wait for this new adventure to begin!” – States Dynamite President and Publisher Nick Barrucci.

“Like” Dynamite on Facebook. Join the conversation on Dynamite Entertainment’s twitter For art and more information, please visit: www.dynamite.net.

Click on images for larger view.

Issue #2 coming soon.

MARS MCCOY BLASTS OFF INTO COMICS!

  • Uncategorized
  • January 9, 2013
Art: Eric Hurley

New Pulp Publisher Airship 27 Productions has announced their 2013 Mars McCoy Space Ranger plans. The second volume of the pulp prose anthology series featuring the character will be available in early 2013 as well as in comic books. There is an 8 pg. Mars McCoy comic strip in development written by Mike Baron with art by Eric Hurley, as seen above.

UCHRONIC TALES: THE STUDIO SPECTER IS NOW AVAILABLE!

  • Uncategorized
  • January 8, 2013
Cover Art: Mike Fyles

New Pulp Author Peter Miller’s Uchronic Tales: The Studio Spectre is now available for ebooks at Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo, with more ebooks and a print version this week. Cover art by New Pulp Artist Mike Fyles.

PRESS RELEASE:

Uchronic Tales: The Studio Specter is now available!

The Uchronic Press is proud to release Uchronic Tales: The Studio Spectre. This action packed novella by W. Peter Miller (Jungle Tales Vol. One) features cover art by Mike Fyles (Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man Noir.)

Investigator Clark Tyler is joined by a new hero—The Jade Monk—as they are thrust behind the scenes and into the line of fire in Hollywood’s Golden Age.

A spirit is on the loose and terrorizing the cast and crew of The Mayan Mummy and it is up to these unlikely allies to get to the bottom of the secrets behind… The Studio Spectre.

The Claim– Coming Soon!

The third exciting pulp adventure featuring Ace Insurance investigator Clark Tyler is now available in ebook form on the following platforms: Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and Smashwords. iBook and Sony stores should follow soon…

A print edition will also follow soon.

Next up – Uchronic Tales: The Claim – it all comes full circle as I finally release the expanded version of the first thing I wrote that got me into this whole pulp writing thing.

Cover Art: Mike Fyles

About Uchronic Tales: The Studio Spectre–
Is the ghost of Triumph Pictures haunting the studios biggest star? When scares turn to murder, Clark Tyler is on the case in his third exciting Uchronic adventure. Tinsel Town is turned upside down when the Spectre is on the loose. Clark Tyler teams up with the Jade Monk to face the mystery and terror of the Studio Spectre.

Clark Tyler returns to the Uchronic past in another exciting novella also featuring an exciting new hero, The Jade Monk.

The set of Triumph Pictures latest epic is threatened when accidents and tension plagues the set of starlet Fay Reynolds’ newest picture, The Mayan Mummy.

Action, thrills, and double crosses careen across the silver screen and it is up to Clark Tyler and his new friends, Kendo Foster and the mysterious Jade Monk, to solve the case and save the studio.

The Studio Spectre is action in the classic pulp hero style and adventure in the tinseltown in the 1930s.

Clark Tyler is also featured in the other Uchronic Tales novellas – The Zeppelin and The Horn.

Learn more about Uchronic Tales here.

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